Train to Busan Director on Horror Film’s Legacy, 10th Anniversary

Posted in: Horror, Interview, Movies | Tagged: train to busan

Train to Busan Director on Horror Film's Legacy, 10th Anniversary

Writer-director Yeon Sang-ho (Colony) spoke to us about the 10th anniversary of Train to Busan, how it shaped him as a filmmaker and more.

Published Fri, 14 Aug 2026 07:17:08 -0500
by Tom Chang
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Article Summary

• Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho reflects on the horror hit’s 10th anniversary and lasting legacy in Korean cinema.
• Yeon explains how Train to Busan transformed him from indie animation filmmaker to globally recognized genre director.
• The filmmaker reveals why Train to Busan gave him the confidence to keep experimenting after its breakout success.
• Yeon discusses Train to Busan’s international rise through streaming and the new wave of fans discovering it worldwide.

Many artists, from actors, directors, writers, and musicians alike, spend their entire lives never finding that work that resonates with audiences, becoming part of the cultural zeitgeist. Some find that one hit, but spend the rest of their careers recreating that success, never achieving it. A relative few are able to build on that success, which is something. Writer-director Yeon Sang-ho was one such artist who was able to hit it big in a zombie genre many would argue is oversaturated. As we live in the age of The Walking Dead and how it revitalized the genre in the United States, the 2016 horror classic Train to Busan was able to do that for Korean cinemas and transcended into international success. The film follows passengers taking a train from Seoul to Busan as a zombie apocalypse breaks out and threatens their safety. Upon its initial release, the film nearly reached $100 million at the Korean box office, which is quite impressive considering its $8.5 million budget. The film's success inspired the 2016 animated prequel Seoul Station and 2020 standalone sequel Peninsula. While promoting his upcoming horror film Colony, Yeon spoke with Bleeding Cool to reflect on the film's 10th anniversary and how new audiences are discovering it through streaming.

Train to Busan Writer-Director Yeon Sang-ho Reflects on Success and How It Shaped Him as a Filmmaker

Bleeding Cool: After 10 years with the success and legacy of Train to Busan, how do you feel that's shaped you as a filmmaker, and what's its lingering impact on Korean cinema?

Yeon: I would say before 'Train to Busan,' I was very much an indie animation director, and after, I've been lucky to have people perceive me as a popular film director. If you were to compare it to the music industry, it's like you have a song that everyone knows, that a lot of people know, and that has been quite enjoyable. But I also feel like it's given me the courage to keep experimenting and keep making new works due to the success of Train to Busan. I think in Korean cinema this film is definitely a work that has familiarized the zombie genre to Korean audiences."

Were you surprised by how much of an international success it became when it was released? How did it feel having legions of fans discovering your work thanks to streaming?

With 'Train to Busan,' I had heard that it was getting quite an international response, but I'm working and living in Seoul, and my literal bandwidth was going from home and going to my work studio. I really didn't realize the extent to how popular it was. When I would go abroad, people would come up to me and tell me that they enjoyed Train to Busan, so that's how I felt the popularity of the film. Like you mentioned, with streaming, it reached an even wider audience, and I think coming here this year, it's been a while since I've come abroad with a film, and so it'll be interesting, and I'm looking forward to meeting actual foreign film fans.

The remastered 4K release of Train to Busan, which stars Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Su-an, Choi Woo-shik, Ahn So-hee, and Kim Eui-sung, comes to theaters via Well Go USA on August 14th. Colony comes to theaters on August 28th.

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